Non-contact alarm volume reduction

ABSTRACT

A method and apparatus for providing a caregiver the capability of modifying the tone and volume of an audible alarm for a medical device based on non-contact methods.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/214,821, filed Mar. 15, 2014, the entirety of which is incorporatedherein by reference and which claimed the benefit of U.S. Provisionalapplication 61/788,387, filed Mar. 15, 2013.

BACKGROUND

This disclosure relates to the field of various patient care devicesused in the care of critical patients. Example devices could be infantwarming devices, anesthesia machines, infusion pumps, ventilators, orneonatal intensive care units. In many of these situations the situationcan be one in which the care provider is required to operate in sterileconditions and is wearing sterile gloves. Such patient care devicesoften have alarm condition sensors that monitor certain parameters anddetermine when an alarm condition exists. This alarm condition may beassociated with the patient or with the patient care device itself.These alarms are important to patient safety in that the caregivers mustrespond to satisfy the alarm condition or the alarm continues tofunction and alert the user. The alarms are often initially rather loudto ensure the caregiver hears them but can then be distracting as thecaregiver responds to the problem indicated by the alarm. Most methodsin the market require silencing of the alarm through physical contactwith the user interface which can be a concern for the caregiver if aprocedure is occurring in a sterile environment and they do not want totouch a non-sterile interface.

One solution in the market is to turn off the alarm through anon-contact method. This is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,733,437 toMackin. But by turning off the alarm in this manner there is a risk thatthe alarm condition gets forgotten and not corrected, that the alarmgets erroneously turned off without the users knowledge, or that theuser walks away after the procedure and forgets that the alarm is stillsilenced which could have patient safety ramifications.

What is needed is an alternate approach, one that reduces the nuisancelevel of the alarm but continues to alert the caregiver so that thealarm condition is not potentially forgotten as in other approaches.

The example that will be used for purposes of this disclosure is aninfant warming device that is used to provide heat support to prematureinfants who cannot sustain their own body temperature. In the treatmentof infants, and particularly those born prematurely, it is necessary toprovide heat to the infant during the care and treatment of the infantand to minimize heat loss from the infant's body. An apparatus forproviding such heat will be referred to in this disclosure as an infantwarming device. In general such an apparatus comprises a flat planarsurface on which the infant rests while various procedures are carriedout. There are normally protective guards that surround the infant andsome type of overhead heater directing radiant energy toward the infant.It should be understood that these infant warming devices might haveother descriptive names, such as, for example, an infant care device, oran infant warming center, an infant incubator, or combination typedevice, and this disclosure anticipates any of those other names.

Although an infant warming device is being used here for illustrativepurposes this disclosure anticipates that numerous other patient caredevices, such as the aforementioned anesthesia machines, infusion pumps,ventilators, or neonatal intensive care units can make use of thisapproach.

BRIEF SUMMARY

The described need is met with a non-contact method of reducing thevolume of the alarm to a pre-set user level and duration. The medicaldevice would incorporate a method of non-contact sensing using anynumber of technologies (proximity, optical, thermal, ultrasonic,capacitance etc.) and after sensing, the device would lower the volumeto a user pre-defined level and time. Additionally the user would havethe option of changing the tone or frequency of the audible alarm inaddition to changing the absolute volume. The user interface could alsobe changed under this condition by modifying the color of the alarm orthe alarm message or icon as it is displayed on the screen to give avisual indication to the user that the alarm level or tone has beenchanged.

The need is met by a non-contact alarm volume reduction system used in apatient care apparatus including at least a sensor or event detectionmechanism for monitoring the condition of the patient or of the patientcare apparatus; an alarm processing circuit operating off of the sensoror event detection mechanism that sends a signal to an audible alarmsounding device to produce a sound or visual display; a non-hand contactvolume reduction sensor operated by human intervention that signals thealarm processing circuit to operate at a predefined tone and volume fora pre-set time; wherein the non-contact volume sensor is activatedwithout hand contact by a human.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a view of an infant care center that can include the inventiveconcept to be described in this disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the proposed non-contact alarm reductionsystem.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring now to FIG. 1 is an illustrative infant warming center thatcan include the inventive concept to be described in this disclosure.The center includes an infant bed 80 that underlies an infant positionedthereon. The infant bed has a surrounding sidewall 70 and rides upon apatient support mechanism 140. The patient bed and surrounding sidewallsmay enclose a heated mattress. A vertical column structure mounted onthe infant warming center supports a radiant heater head 10, containinga radiant heater 170 (FIG. 3). The radiant heater assembly is designedto optimize the heat focused on the infant. The vertical columnstructure may have a user interface 30 and a resuscitation module 50.The infant warming device's main computer controller may reside in thevertical column structure or may reside in the patient supportmechanism. Handles 60, 90, are used to move the infant warming devicearound as it can be moved on flat surfaces via legs 110 with attachedwheels and controlled with footswitches 130. On the rear side of thecolumn is a location for carrying a remote gas supply tank 100. Underthe patient support mechanism 140 is a cantilever cover 160 and turretcover 180 for shrouding the rotation mechanisms, with a cantilever arm190 that supports the patient support, vertical column, and supports astorage enclosure 150.

FIG. 2, shown generally by the numeral 200, illustrates a total systemcomprising a patient care system (medical device 220) with an integralalarm processing circuit 230 and embedded software that includes anaudible alarm 240 and a visual alarm 260. A sensor interface/eventdetection system 250 can monitor both the condition of the patient andkey parameters of the infant care apparatus and inputs that informationto alarm processing 230. The system receives feedback from the user(via, hand, foot, etc.) and signals the alarm circuit to change thestandard alarm to a new alarm with a predefined tone and volume levelfor a pre-set time. Transducer input 210 represents a variety ofpossible non-contact technologies (proximity, optical, thermal,ultrasonic, capacitance etc.), all of which are possible and are allanticipated in this disclosure.

In one embodiment the non-contact alarm volume reduction system used ina patient care apparatus could be activated by optical sensing to detectan object in proximity to patient care apparatus.

In another embodiment the non-contact alarm volume reduction system usedin a patient care apparatus could be activated by temperature sensing todetect an object in close proximity to patient care apparatus.

In another embodiment the non-contact alarm volume reduction system usedin a patient care apparatus could be activated by an air motion sensoradapted to a change in air pressure.

In another embodiment the non-contact alarm volume reduction system usedin a patient care apparatus could be activated by a sound recognitionsystem responsive to the voice of a person.

In another embodiment the non-contact alarm volume reduction system usedin a patient care apparatus could be activated by contact with foot of acaregiver.

In another embodiment the non-contact alarm volume reduction system usedin a patient care apparatus could be activated by an ultrasonic sensor.

In another embodiment the non-contact alarm volume reduction system usedin a patient care apparatus could be activated by a capacitance sensor.

In another aspect the non-contact alarm volume reduction system used ina patient care apparatus is programmable and adjustable by the user.

In another aspect the non-contact alarm volume reduction system used ina patient care apparatus the level, tone or frequency of the reducedalarm volume system can be programmed.

In another aspect the non-contact volume reduction system can bepre-programmed by the user to pre-set the reduced volume and thealternate tone of the audible alarm, as well as the time interval forthe alarm.

Advantages over the Prior Art

The advantage of the proposed system is that it is a non-contact methodfor addressing alarm noises in the clinical workspace but unlike othersystems does not completely silence the alarm. This allows the user tonot be distracted by a high alarm volume but the alarm would continue tosignal at a reduce level or a different tone. This concept does not havethe risk of completely turning off the alarm.

Although certain embodiments and their advantages have been describedherein in detail, it should be understood that various changes,substitutions and alterations could be made without departing from thecoverage as defined by the appended claims. Moreover, the potentialapplications of the disclosed techniques is not intended to be limitedto the particular embodiments of the processes, machines, manufactures,means, methods and steps described herein. As a person of ordinary skillin the art will readily appreciate from this disclosure, otherprocesses, machines, manufactures, means, methods, or steps, presentlyexisting or later to be developed that perform substantially the samefunction or achieve substantially the same result as the correspondingembodiments described herein may be utilized. Accordingly, the appendedclaims are intended to include within their scope such processes,machines, manufactures, means, methods or steps.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A patient care apparatus comprising: an alarm system, comprising: an event detection sensor for monitoring the condition of the patient care apparatus; an audible alarm sounding device operable to produce audible sounds; a non-contact sensor configured to generate a signal in response to detecting a caregiver; a user interface operable to display visual information about the alarm system; and an alarm processing circuit configured to receive signals from the event detection sensor and the non-contact sensor, generate a first control signal based on the signals from the event detection sensor, and generate a second control signal when the signal is received from the non-contract sensor, wherein the audible alarm sounding device is operable to (i) produce an audible sound having a first frequency and a first tone in response to receiving the first control signal from the alarm processing circuit and (ii) produce an audible sound having a second frequency different from the first frequency and a second tone different from the first tone in response to receiving the second control signal from the alarm processing circuit, wherein the alarm system is configured to be operated by the caregiver to adjust the second tone between a number of different tones, and wherein the user interface is operable to (i) display a first visual alarm in response to receiving the first control signal from the alarm processing circuit and (ii) display a second visual alarm in response to receiving the second control signal from the alarm processing circuit, the second visual alarm being different from the first visual alarm. 